Smoked salmon risotto

I like to try new recipes and new things. I have lots of cookbooks and I look around on the internet for inspiration. Other people blogging about things are very helpful, it helps me to think of something nice to eat too. Or sometimes I just make the recipe I found somewhere. This was the case tonight. I made the smoked salmon risotto I found a while ago.

Off course I didn’t totally follow the recipe, I almost never follow a recipe. So with this recipe, I used cold-smoked salmon, more then the recipe asked for; I used chicken stock instead of vegetable (I think chicken is more tasty); I’m not sure I used dry white wine, I just used the wine I still had left; I used less lemon and no arugula; I used more garlic. And the way I made it, I really liked it. But when I make it the next time, I probably will use even less lemon, I think it was still quite lemony, a bit to much for my taste. But I still think this is a really really nice risotto and I’m sure I will make this dish again. It was a good use for my home-made stock.

Some tips for risotto making:
– keep stirring, otherwise it will burn
– make sure you prepare all the ingredients on the beforehand and don’t do anything else than focusing on the risotto. It is possible to make risotto and something else on the same time, but when I try, I burn one of them. So the easiest way is to do one thing at the time.
– when you used up almost all stock, taste your rice. When it’s done (soft but with a little bite), stop adding stock. Sometimes it takes some more stock then other times.
– you HAVE to use risotto rice for making risotto. Arborio and carnaroli are the most common to find in the shops. This is the only kind of rice that absorbs this much liquid.
– risotto is comfort food, it’s meant to make a nice puddle on your plate. When you can mount it and it doesn’t collapse, you did something wrong. Risotto has to be smooth and unctuous.

I served the risotto with a simple cucumber salad, that matched very well.